Buck Showalter Rolled the Dice and Lost

"No, he was fine," Orioles manager Buck Showalter said in response to a question about the health and availability of Baltimore closer Zach Britton following the O's 5-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Wild Card game, a game in which Britton didn't appear. "I considered a lot of things during the course of the game, but our guys did a good job getting us to that point. We just couldn't finish it off."

Instead of going to Britton—a Cy Young candidate with a sinker that acts like a bowling ball dropped from a passing fighter jet—in the bottom of the 11th inning to face the heart of Toronto's order, Showalter had opted for Ubaldo Jimenez, whom he said had been pitching as well as any Oriole…except for Britton. Showalter's moves had been working out to that point. Mychal Givens, a bunched-up sidearmer, had seen Baltimore through two tough middle innings after starter Chris Tillman's early exit, producing a much-needed double play and retiring Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, and Jose Bautista in order. The alliterative and effective duo of Brad Brach and Darren O'Day had worked three more scoreless frames. All this time, the game stayed tied at two, and Showalter stillhad his relief ace in his pocket.

When he rolled the dice again in the 11th, though, his luck changed. After Jimenez came in, Devon Travis and Donaldson singled, putting runners at the corners for Encarnacion. Encarnacion then got a low but non-sinking, decidedly un-Britton-esque fastball and rocketed it over the left-field wall. The game and the Baltimore season were over.

Criticism of Showalter was swift and predictable, and it started in the buildup to Encarnacion's deciding homer. Using your best relievers in the most critical situations is one of the clearest strategies a manager can employ to help his team; opting not to do so almost always indicates over-allegiance to an outdated mode of baseball thinking—in this case, the notion that you shouldn't bring on a closer in a tie game on the road. Twitter lit up with Showalter takes, TBS's postgame show centered on his decision, and almost every question he faced in his postgame presser concerned Britton's non-appearance.

For his part, Showalter dismissed the idea that he would never bring on a closer in that situation, saying the decision was not "philosophical" but rather that "there's a lot of risks taken every inning, every pitch," and that saving Britton was one of those. Surviving those earlier innings without resorting to his best reliever may have emboldened him to risk one more inning.

Justifying keeping Britton in the bullpen, though, takes some work: a belief that a closer can perform only his scripted role, or that a team might perform better offensively knowing that their ninth-inning man is waiting to lock down any lead they gain. Justifying bringing him in, on the other hand, would have been easy; you want your best players up against theirs with the season on the line. Showalter spent the minutes after the game claiming it wasn't quite so simple. To everyone else, it sure looked like it was.